India Blocks Internet Access

An interesting development in terms of government response to terrorism, India shut down access – applied filters to their MAE or backbone firewalls – to prevent access to terrorist blog sites and resource sites. This also shut down access to other more legitimate sites that have nothing to do with terrorism.

Article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13932372/

State intervention over Internet access isn’t new; certainly more compelling is the fact this happened in a modern democracy and not in China, Iran, or North Korea. Although the national security interest is probably a reasonable cause, the disasterous effect upon macroeconomic activity is troubling – I cannot imagine what work-around would be financially possible if interconnectivity via the web wasn’t available for business; entire business models would be turned on its head, completely affecting productivity and livlihoods. Is it in the state’s best interest to shut down a major highway for very long in interest of national security? The same parallel could be drawn to the Internet.

I wonder how long it’ll be before the US determines various chunks of the Internet ought be filtered in the interest of national security?

R
www.micklerandassociates.com

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